Wow - Melanie looks incredible compared to when the competition started - she and Maxim are my favorites, followed very closely by Helio & Julianne.

What was up with Marie's dance? I am still surprised she even made the finals, but that rag doll routine was dreadful - I'm so glad the judges didn't gush over it.

Based on the audience reaction Helio may be the winner.

I know a lot of us have been hoping to a woman to win this year, but our votes went all to Helio last night. He is a guy who did no dancing or stage entertainment prior to this show and just look how far he has come - amazing!

Mel is a great dancer, although neither my husband nor I particularly enjoyed her free dance last night. The lifts were fantastic but the rest of it fell short for us. The fact that she is a singer and dancer (of a different type) to begin with just has never seemed to be fair competition against the others.

I so agree with you, Leslie, about Marie's "doll dance". It could have been OK if they had used those costumes and the beginning with the "key" but she should have really come to life and danced following that instead of staying in rag doll form. What was she thinking?

Helio has always been #1 as far as I'm concerned. Helio's dancing has been and continues to be fantastic. He has such a winning smile and way about him that captivates.

Mel has been terrific. But I do think that Helio has all the components necessary to win. A very close call for this season.

Time for Marie to go. I agree, Leslie. The doll routine was a complete disaster.

BTW, whatever happened to Sabrina? She was great.

Kathy - that's just what I thought - that Marie would come to life after her partner used the key.

When I initially saw the line up for this season it didn't look too promising, but the group this time included some great dancers. Too bad Sabrina was voted off earlier - it would have been a better finale with her in it.

I'm happy with Mel or Helio, but I gave 4 votes to Mel and 1 to Helio. I've never voted before - why do you get 5 votes instead of just 1? Also it doesn't seem fair to allow the voting to open before they are all done.

I don't watch this very often but caught it last week and yesterday. Marie's dance last week was wonderful. This week's bad performance looked staged. All the trouble with the lifts in rehearsal = why do them at all? I say send the rag doll home.

Cheers, Anne

Leslie, until the show reached the finals you got as many votes each week as there were contestants. So, on the first week you were allowed 12 votes per phone line, per E-mail account and per text message cell phone line. I could never get my votes on my E-mail account to work the first two weeks this season, then I gave up trying to vote that way. But my husband was voting on his laptop with no problem. I would miss too much of the show running back and forth to the study to vote on the computer so I just used our portable phone with the redial feature. On week two you got 11 votes and so on through the weeks with fewer votes each week as there were fewer contestants. I think they allow voting to start early because that is the only way they can handle the volume of calls. Last night I started voting at 8:15 and it took all the way until 9:25 to reach my limit of 5 calls. I do agree that this policy hurts the contestants who dance last if you are waiting to see how they do on any given week. If your favorite dances near the end it becomes very difficult to get your votes in before voting closes in your time zone. That happened to me two different weeks. A laptop or text message seems to be the best way to go.

I vote online, and Helio got all 5 last night - for all the reasons Denise stated. He's the only one with NO stage experience, and he's done a tremendous job. Plus, every time I watch him dance, I find myself grinning, he's just contagious.

Marie should have been gone ages ago, definitely long before Sabrina. But she has been on a tremendous self-promotion campaign, she's determined to win, and boy oh boy, she must have the fans to do it, or she'd be gone. I've seen her on nearly every talk show (including Larry King). I still can't believe she managed to squeeze in an Oprah Special between her father's death and his funeral. And as an aside, I'm 49 years old, and Donny Osmond was my idol growing up. I still can't believe we never married, what's up with that?? Anyway, my girlfriends and I went to see him in "Joseph" (fantastic), and also to see him in concert a couple of years ago. I had signed up for his newsletter (which would give me priority seats when the Osmond Reunion comes to town...LOL). Anyway, I received this tacky "Vote For Marie" email the other day. I'm to vote for her, and email 10 friends asking them to vote for her, they email 10 more etc....and then I think you get to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or something. Just kidding about the last part.

But believe me, while she is by far the least talented of the three (and the judges did try to reflect that in their scoring last night), there's a darn good chance she'll win. She's tugged at a LOT of heartstrings....talking on DWTS and on the talk show circuit about her personal problems (recently separated), she fainted, her father died, her son is in rehab....

I'll be watching tonight with bated breath, and a glass or two of Gavi.

Charlene

AHHH Gavi Charlene - YUM!!!

It's an Italian wine night for LCT DTWS. Barbera d'Alba is on the counter, 'breathing', for tonight's finale.

Cheers, Anne

I'm very happy with the outcome. I won't say more so not to spoil it for those on the west coast.

Great finale! The entire show was so entertaining. Celine Dion's number with the professional dancers was beautiful.

Yes, Westcoasters, watch the show, it was super. And stop reading now......a disclaimer....I'm too transparent, can't fake it, so don't read this thread!!!!

I'm exceptionally happy with the outcome. With the whole darn show, actually. Loved seeing the "ousted" dancers again (and when I saw Sabrina, couldn't believe she wasn't in the final), loved seeing the professionals dancing while Celine Dion sang, it was just a great show overall. How will they top this next year? Who will be on it. I actually heard (and I am Canadian...) rumours of Celine herself being interested. She's got the body. Just like mine. Yes, keep telling myself, just like mine.... And I heard my darling Donny (we aren't married, I mentioned that, I don't understand it) might even be interested.

Joanna, I moved from Gavi to Pinot Grigio. This was a multiple bottle evening. It was fantastico!!!!

I am really happy about the outcome. I thought that the results show was a bit long though. The network must be making a lot of money from the commercials.

Yes, I thought the finale was way too long as well.

But the aftermath--Helio and Julianne???

Getting Celine signed up would be a major coup, but I can't imagine her doing this.